In the wake of O'Reilly and Fox News' attacks on Yearly Kos, I've seen a variety of diary entries linking DKos and Jet Blue together as the victims of hatemongering wingnuts. Of course I agree that O'Reilly and his cohorts are off their rocker and struggling to maintain their existence and importance in the world. Unfortunately it seems that we've fallen into the logic of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", or perhaps we've been swayed by Jet Blue's sponsorship of Yearly Kos. This is a sad state of affairs in that Jet Blue is wrapping itself in the progressive flag while acting in quite the contrary manner. I've tried to point this out in a comment before, but I find it necessary to expose some of Jet Blue's more repulsive, anti-progressive habits.
Follow me over the fold, if you would.
Jet Blue became famous for maintaining a low cost, highly profitable airline in the post 9-11 world. How did they do it? At least in part, by screwing their workers.
JetBlue is a cheapskate, union-hating, understaffed operation. There is no slack for emergencies because people already work as long as possible, and there are no planes in reserve.
This is not to say that JetBlue is so different from other airlines. The company’s Chairman, CEO and founder, David Neeleman, learned the business at Southwest, which also squeezes out every dollar. And the older "heritage" airlines are trying the best they can to emulate the Southwest-JetBlue model. But most of the airlines, including Southwest, remain union, and employees are sometimes able to work human-scale hours.
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In a highly quoted interview with Jet Blue founder and CEO David Neeleman, he espouses a variety of anti-union views. In his opinion, unions are historical relics, serving to protect workers from "bad" companies but an unnecessary burden for "good" companies. How one defines a good and bad company is left unknown, but of course Neeleman considers Jet Blue a "good" one.
Q: Would you resist a labor-organizing effort at JetBlue?
A: We would. I love American history, and I've studied it. I understand we had a big need for unions in this country. You basically had unscrupulous people who were building companies on the backs of their people without giving them health care and without giving them other benefits. They made them take on hazardous jobs and work long hours.
We aren't one of those companies. We don't do that to our people.
We don't want a third party who may or may not have our best interests in mind or our crew members' best interests in mind because they may be serving a union of one of our competitors. They are trying to equalize us and take away our competitive advantage.
We are just interested in dealing with the people we're paying every day. We know federal law allows them to vote in a union at anytime, but we think we can resist that by talking to our own people and giving them enough upside.
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The American Flight Attendants union is currently in the midst of organizing Jet Blue attendants. Just today, they tell the story of one workers who suffered from this "good" company based on her at-will employment status.
As many of my peers have heard, I was fired last week by JetBlue -- allegedly for misconduct. Several weeks ago while commuting to work from LAS, an intoxicated passenger who had been denied boarding on prior flights verbally assaulted me and then spit in my face. While I regret using a curse word in response to the incident - I was completely humiliated at the time. Because I wasn't 'on duty', I was stunned to find myself in such an altercation with an out-of-control passenger.
Following the incident, the company informed me I was suspended until further notice pending an investigation. Eighteen days later (with no communication in between) I was terminated over the phone. This clearly violates all protocols we have been given in the company employee manual. Because I have been active in the AFA campaign, I have no doubt that the company's actions were a pretext -- in other words, they have more to do with my support for joining the Association of Flight Attendants than they have to do with my unfortunate response.
This incident brings two (2) things to the forefront; 1.) The importance of JetBlue FAs obtaining a contract with "just cause" protections from arbitrary disciplinary actions and 2.) The importance of joining the only strong organization in the country that stands up for flight attendants and helps protect us from passenger assault and aggression.
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I find it bizarre that a movement that's supposed to stand for a united, progressive cause is dividing itself among an important issue. We as progressives should be standing with workers who struggle against such companies. The "progressive" model of social responsibility espoused by Jet Blue is just a mirage, an act to put the happy face on its poor treatment of workers.
Why are we defending this company? Why are we even partnering with them?